Thursday, March 28, 2024

Kirk Franklin Announces Boycott of Dove Awards After His Speech is Edited [VIDEO]

*Gospel singer Kirk Franklin is pissed that his acceptance speech at the Oct. 15  Gospel Music Association Dove Awards was edited for television, so he has vowed to boycott the ceremony going forward. 

The edited version of his speech aired on Trinity Broadcasting Network, which cut out his remarks on Atatiana Jefferson, the 28-year-old Black woman who was shot and killed in her home by a trigger happy white Fort Worth police officer.

“I’m just asking that we send up prayers for her family, and for his,” he said from the podium at the awards show, Nashville Tennessean reports. 

Franklin announced his boycott with a video message on Monday, noting that he will stay clear of .”any events affiliated with or for the Dove Awards, Gospel Music Association or TBN, until tangible plans are put in place to protect and champion diversity, especially where people of color have contributed their gifts, talents and finances to help build the viability of these institutions.”

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Franklin said this was the second time his speech at the ceremony had been censored when he spoke out about police brutality in the Black community.

As noted by Billboard, during the 2016 Dove awards — following the killing of five police officers at a protest in Dallas — he said, “When police are killed, we need to say something. When black boys are killed, we need to say something. And when we don’t say something, we’re saying something.” 

On Monday, Franklin said the goal of his boycott was “reconciliation and accountability.”

“It is important for those in charge to be informed, not only did they edit my speech, they edited the African-American experience,” he said. 

“I’m not asking those in the gospel community to follow my decision. No, this is my personal decision to take a stand, and hold responsible those in positions of power to acknowledge the issues in our separate communities that have existed from colonialism to Jim Crow.”

GMA President and Executive Director Jackie Patillo said the organization was “deeply apologetic for the missteps that happened relating to the editing of Kirk Franklin’s Dove Awards acceptance speech.”

“We accept the responsibility of our error,” Patillo explains. “Although completely unintentional, we understand it caused great harm and deeply wounded many in the African American and Gospel community. As well, it left a general perception that we are not concerned with key social issues that affect people of color.  It is not our intent to disregard or silence any of our artists, and we are deeply saddened by this perception and are committed to change this.”

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